Ridge-brace for box-cars.



A. TREPTOW.

RIDGE BEACH FOR BOX CARS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 29,1910.

Patented Aug. 12,1913.

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COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO-IWASHINGTDN, D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT caries.

AUGUST TREPTOW, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO RAYMOND C. DUDLEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RIDGE-BRAGE FOR BOX-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 12,1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUoUsT TREPTOW, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ridge-l3race for Box-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for an object the stiffening and tying of the ridge of the roof-frame work in box-cars, binding together the endplates and the respectively contiguous ends of the ridge-pole, so that the ridge-pole is held rigidly perpendicular to the end-plates and is not displaced from its proper relation to them by either the end-thrust or lateral strains to which the roof-framework is subjected in service; and the invention has for further objects such other improvements in structure or function as may be found to obtain in the device hereinafter de scribed or claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which like reference numerals indicate like parts in all of the figures,Figure 1 is a plan view of the roof-framework, with a portion intermediate the ends broken away; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the tie-brace device shown in plan and section in the other views.

10 is the ridge-pole; 11, 11 are the endplates; 12, 12 are the side-plates; and 13,13 are carlines. Each end of the ridge-pole 10 is tied to and braced against its supporting end-plate 11 by the tie-brace device 1A, which is a casting of malleable iron. The outer end of this casting is a horizontal flat member 15 of the full width of the ridgepole and the full breadth of the end-plate and is interposed between said end-plate and the ridge-pole-end supported thereby. Along the inner edge of this flat member 15 there is a depending vertical flange 16 that is of nearly half the depth of the end-plate and bears against the inner vertical face 17 of said end-plate; and along the outer edge of said flat member 15 there is a narrower depending flange 18 that grips the upper edge of the outer vertical face 19 of said endplate. The inner end of the casting 14 is a narrowed member 20 that is seated against the under face 21 of the adjacent end-portion of the ridge-pole and is provided near its opposite ends with two upwardly projecting hollow cylindric dowels 22, 23 socketed into the under face of the ridge-pole. A bolt 24 is passed vertically down through the ridge-pole and through each of these dowels 22, 23, binding each end of the member 20 to said ridge-pole, and a third vertical bolt 25 is similarly passed through the ridge-pole and the bolt-hole 26 in the center of said member 20. A fourth vertical bolt 27 is passed through and binds together the ridge-pole-end and the casting-member 15 and the end-plate, said member 15 being centrally provided with the bolt-hole 28 for this purpose. A short triangular vertical web 29 centrally spans the angle between the depending flange 16 and the outer end of the castingmember 20; and on either side of said web 29 the said flange 16 is provided with a faced boss 30 having a bolt-hole 31 through which passes the inner end of a horizontal bolt 32 that binds said flange 16 against the inner face of the end-plate. End-thrust of the ridge-pole in either direction is checked at the respectively opposite ends of the carroof framework by the shouldering of these castings against and their connection with the endplates; and by reason of the width of such shouldering and the long bearing connection between these casting members and the ridge-pole ends, the perpendicularity of the ridge-pole to the end-plates, and its parallelism with the side-plates of the roof, is preserved against the lateral distortion strains to which the roof-framework is subjected in service. Thus the roof is both held to the fixed length of the ridgepole and kept rigidly four-square.

My invention is hereinabove set forth as embodied in one particular form of construction, but I do not limit it thereto or to less than all the possible forms in which the invention as hereinafter claimed may be embodied and distinguished from prior devices for like purposes.

I claim In a car roof frame, the combination with the end plates, and the ridge pole extending over the end plates, of metal tie-braces interposed between the end plates and the ridge pole, each tie-brace comprising an elongated body-member on the underface of the ridge pole near the end plate and having portions let into the body of the ridge pole, a longitudinal extension member in the plane of the said body-member and interposed between the ridge pole and the up per face of the supporting end plate, a de pending flange against the inner face of the end plate, and an outer depending flange against the outer face of the end plate, bolts securing the body-member to the ridge pole, and a bolt passing through the extension member and securing the ridge pole to the 10 end plate, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

AUGUST TREPTOVV. lVitnesses:

HENRY LOVE CLARKE, ETHEL G. BARRETT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

